30 • THINK TANK
psyche: when the amber liquid fl ows from the cask and into the bottle, and the cork is set in the collar, the fl avour is frozen in time. Except this isn’t the whole story when it comes to old bottles. Some believe that, over time – and we’re talking more than 20 years here – environmental factors outside and inside the glass can slowly aff ect the spirit. This has become known as “bottle aging”, or the “old bottle eff ect”. So what exactly is changing the spirit in the bottle
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over the years? Well, one is oxygen, which can create chemical reactions and a corresponding change in fl avour. When bottles are sealed, only a tiny amount of air is captured in the headspace, or ‘ullage’, and is not likely to cause a perceptible change in the fl avour. But it could be a different matter if the seal were compromised in some way and more air seeped in, even tiny amounts. Professor Paul Hughes, director of the
International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University, explains: “In the early stages of oxidation, you could expect to find acetaldehyde becoming formed, which, depending on the person, has the smell of either green apples of paint emulsion. In later reactions, ethyl acetate can form, giving even more of a fruit and solvent smell.” Breaks in the seal can be a particular
problem for very old bottles, due perhaps to imperfections in the glass at the mouth and collar, from hand blown bottles that predate industrial glass production. “When looking at an old bottle,
particularly at auctions, you need to pay attention to the ullage which can become bigger as the spirit leaks out,” explains Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte and Mackay. “This can indicate imperfections in the glass with looser corks, as well as the condition of the seal.” But then a growing ullage could also
indicate the treatment of the bottle over the years as opposed to defects in the glass. Richard continued: “People don’t realise that if you keep putting a bottle on its side and then back up again you are making the cork wet and dry again which leads to the cork shrinking and losing elasticity. For some very old whiskies, the only thing probably keeping it sealed is the lead capsule.” For Angus MacRaild, whisky specialist at Mulberry Bank Auctions, which not only auctions very old
OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS 1
RICHARD PATERSON Master blender, Whyte and Mackay
THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY 2 ANGUS
MACRAILD Mulberry Bank
Auctions 3
PROF. PAUL
HUGHES Herriot-Watt Univsity
4
GORDON MOTION Master distiller, Edrington
very whisky enthusiast worth their salt knows when it comes to maturation, it’s all about the wood. It’s an understanding that has burrowed deep into the dram drinker’s
The best and the rest
Angus MacRaild explains the bottles that work best sitting on a dusty shelf for decades…
The whiskies that tend to show bottle aging characteristics most intensely are old blends and low strength, lighter bodied malts. The old Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseur’s Choice range is a very good example of bottles that regularly display quite intense characteristics of bottle aging. In these instances, the aromas and flavours are likely to be more in the direction of dust, cardboard, porridge and vegetal notes.
The best whiskies for positive bottle maturation are more potent, full bodied malts, peated and heavily sherried whiskies, very old
blends (pre-1950s) with significantly higher malt content and cask strength bottlings. The SMWS casks in the coming decades should be excellent bottles to keep. In these instances, the peated and sherried malts that might have been bottled in the 1970s or earlier tend to diversify in their flavours and you get many sub- aromas that can be quite metallic with strong cereal characteristics, a lot more elegant fruit qualities and more emphasis on drier qualities. The very old blends such as pre- 1950s White Horse, 1940s Dimples, pre-1950s Teachers and Bells can all show wonderfully elegant mineral, metallic peat notes with quite dry, fragrant herbal, coastal, fruit and medicinal qualities. These bottles are worth seeking out as they offer a great window into extinct styles of whisky production and the great potential of bottle aging.
Of all the flavours that benefit from bottle aging it is probably peat that gains the most. Peat flavour and aroma over the course of decades in a bottle seems to subdivide into all kinds of oily, fruity, phenolic, dry and dusty sub-aromas – it is a far cry from the anvil-like power of a fresh, heavily peated whisky.
bottles but also runs tastings of them, the quality of the seal is crucial. “Corks are actually far inferior to the much more airtight screwcaps and, the best, spring caps,” he says. “The old metal spring caps were the best for retaining a bottle’s level, although they can occasionally infect the whisky with the internal cardboard disk on the inside of the cap.”
As well as letting air in which changes the nature of
the spirit, leaks also allow alcohol to escape, bringing the strength down and again aff ecting fl avour. MacRaild explains: “The strength of a whisky is
important, as many of the reactive compounds are insulated by alcohol, which is why the old bottle eff ect takes so long to become apparent. The alcohol acts as a kind of barrier for these compounds, preventing them from properly reacting together.
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